WELCOMING MY NEW SET OF TENANTS
I welcome my new set of tenants today. Honestly, i had no intention of taking people in. For starters, it pretty much an uncompleted property unfitting for the average person to live in and secondly i had a bad experience with the last two families i tried to help who came begging, desperate for a decking over their head.
The reality is a lot of people are suffering. it isn't something many of you reading this can easily conceive. I could say I live a very average life. I live in a studio apartment with my family. The only positive is that we own the property and on completion we would have 6 flats because it is a storey building. My dad had big plans and the funds to undertake such a project while he was still alive. However, in my case, i am pretty much just finding my feet as young man with a large family to cater for. unfortunately, there are families that have it worse than mine and we have them as tenants.
I had no intention of having them pay--my current tenants. However, given my previous experience i will say people don't value things they don't work or pay for so i made it mandatory that they fix the place up before they move. unfortunately one of the tenants couldn't because he needed to evacuate the place he was staying as he had agreed to. He is a family man with four kids. His wife was delivered of a baby some months ago. They are currently in my building, in a room with no door or windows and it is very cold this evening and mosquitoes are having a field day. This was us when we first moved in here--although much more better. Things were petty rough for my family then. My dad was sick in Venezuela and we didn't know about it. I was struggling in uni and my mum was managing her small business. We had to leave the flat we rented to our own property even though it was uncompleted. i remember our first night. It was peaceful. Not having to deal with any landlord or living in fear and uncertainty, but it was strange. I had never lived in such conditions before with no electricity, water or windows. Nothing. Thinking about it now, i feel so grateful and humbled. Things might not be so great but they are light-years better than what they used to be.
i had another single mum with her young daughter beg me for shelter in my building this evening. I am currently harboring 3 families already. I don't know how to tell them off but the place is inhabitable. Where will they shower? I am sure they don't have money to fix the place. I am sure they don't mind because they are desperate at this point. they just want a roof over their head. the last family that left my compound almost ruined me. Most of my financial challenges this year was as a result of the help i tried to render. It is really difficult lending a helping hand after such an experience.
It is a humbling experience for me, having been through this phase of desperation myself and i am grateful for the fact that i am helping families go through the same in my own little way. It is a huge compound and i cant live in every flat simultaneously. I hope there is some light at the end of the tunnel for these families.
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